Never knowingly undersolved
A pleasantly accessible crossword from Everyman this week. There is nothing so far as I can see that is controversial.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
Pangakupu provides December’s Genius
As 2026 begins Eccles supplies the first Saturday savoury of the year.
This week’s 11 x 11 crossword from the Guardian intended to teach cryptic crosswords, found here
And so this is Christmas, and what have you solved?…another year over, a new Cyclops Xmas jumbo special just begun…
I was slightly nervous that I might be getting the Grauniad Christmas Special by Maskarade as the Prize puzzle to blog, but it seems the new normal is to have a ‘regular’ Prize puzzle and the Maskarade as a ‘bonus’ on the side…
Demoniacal is back. We were last required to eat “nothing but peas” in 4756 on the play Woyzeck. What fate lies in store for us this time?
Phi’s first Independent puzzle of 2026 appears on his usual publication day of Friday, so all’s well with the world.
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29893.
A fun challenge from GUY!
“The series of crosswords, now known as Inquisitor, began in 1988, headed simply Crossword. It has since appeared every Saturday, except on Christmas Days and with one accidental omission. Changes in presentation have occurred, but the team of contributors has continued to develop naturally, as has the style. Today’s crossword is number 1106 in the series. In future, Inquisitor will be numbered accordingly.”
Mike Laws, Crossword Editor, Boxing Day 2009.
The first blog on this site, by Pete Biddlecombe, contains some more information on the name changes and number restarts.
Happy Mummers’ Day!
Some setters use more than one pseudonym …
Happy New Year from Raich, and from me – best wishes for 2026.